Men's Tennis

INDIANAPOLIS - While just missing the doubles point, the No. 5 UIC men's tennis team came back in singles and had four of its matches in three sets before No. 4 Wright State pulled away with a 4-0 win Friday in the opening round of the Horizon League Championship at North Central High School. With No. 6 Detroit upsetting No. 3 Youngstown State, the Flames will compete for fifth place against the Penguins Saturday at 1 p.m. (CT).

"We had our chances at No. 2 doubles, but let too many opportunities get away," head coach Hans Neufeld said. "We were in every singles match but couldn't hold onto momentum when we had it. We need to be ready for tomorrow's match to send us home with a win."

Beginning in doubles, the Raiders claimed the first point after winning two of the three matches. Jamison Clark and Hayden Joblin defeated Alexander Raa and Rahul Kamath, 8-2, at No. 1 before Isaac Lloveras and Gautham Oroskar took down Evan Neuman and Ricardo Pineda, 8-4, at No. 3. The deciding match came at No. 2, where Maurizio Feoli and Alan Reifer were edged by Lauri Makikalli and Michael Lyzwa, 8-6.

The Flames had four singles matches in three sets before the winner was crowned. Wright State took the first match at No. 1, as Joblin came out on top of Raa, 7-6, 6-4. Feoli was positioned at No. 5 against Clark, but fell, 3-6, 7-6, 6-4, after taking his first set. Kamath came back in the second set against Dan Hyman at No. 6, but ultimately dropped a 6-2, 2-6, 6-2 decision to close out the match.

Three singles matches went unfinished for UIC, as Reifer (No. 2) and Lloveras (No. 3) were left stranded in their respective third sets and Christopher Cole (No. 4) was into his second with Pineda.

The Flames take on the Penguins in the consolation round Saturday, as the two teams get set to play for fifth place. In the regular season, Youngstown State came away with a 6-1 win against UIC, while the Flames defeated Detroit, 4-3, who topped the Penguins, 4-2, Friday.